The healthy programmer: get fit, feel better, and keep coding

242 Pages·2013·15.23 MB·English

by  Joe Kutner

Early praise for The Healthy Programmer
Joe Kutner offers practical, readable, and well-researched advice for those who
sit at a keyboard. I’ve incorporated his health-and-fitness regimen into my writing
routine.
➤ Dr. Steve Overman
Professor of Physical Education (retired), Jackson State University
Health and programming should go together like a horse and carriage. You can’t
have one without the other. In our sedentary office work, we often forget that an
absence of health is as bad as a lack of programming skills. Joe points out a dozen
areas where you and I can do better. Every office worker should read this book
and self-reflect on health improvements.
➤ Staffan Nöteberg
Author of Pomodoro Technique Illustrated
This book introduced me to the term conditioned hypereating. It felt life-changing.
Being aware of this has made it easier to experiment with smaller, less-ambitious
changes that actually have a chance at succeeding. I’m very curious to see where
this puts me a year from now.
➤ Katrina Owen
Developer, Jumpstart Lab
The Healthy Programmer is excellent. In many ways it’s a spiritual continuation
of The Hacker’s Diet.
➤ Stephen Ball
Senior Rails programmer, PhishMe, Inc.
The Healthy Programmer
Get Fit, Feel Better, and Keep Coding
Joe Kutner
The Pragmatic Bookshelf
Dallas, Texas • Raleigh, North Carolina
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Programmers, LLC was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed in
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The team that produced this book includes:
Brian P. Hogan (editor)
Potomac Indexing, LLC (indexer)
Candace Cunningham (copyeditor)
David J Kelly (typesetter)
Janet Furlow (producer)
Juliet Benda (rights)
Ellie Callahan (support)
Copyright © 2013 The Pragmatic Programmers, LLC.
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted, in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording, or otherwise, without the prior consent of the publisher.
Printed in the United States of America.
ISBN-13: 978-1-937785-31-4
Encoded using the finest acid-free high-entropy binary digits.
Book version: P1.0—June 2013
Disclaimer
This book is intended only as an informative guide for those wishing to know
more about health issues. In no way is this book intended to replace,
countermand, or conflict with the advice given to you by your own healthcare
provider, including physician, nurse practitioner, physician assistant,
registered dietician, and other licensed professionals.
Keep in mind that results vary from person to person. This book is not
intended as a substitute for medical or nutritional advice from a healthcare
provider or dietician. Some people have a medical history, condition, and/or
nutritional requirements that warrant individualized recommendations and,
in some cases, medications and healthcare surveillance.
Do not start, stop, or change medications or dietary practices without advice
from a professional healthcare provider and/or registered dietician. A
healthcare provider should be consulted if you are on medication or if you
have any symptoms that may require diagnosis or medical attention. Do
not change your diet if you are ill or on medication, except under the super-
vision of a healthcare provider. Neither this nor any other book or discussion
forum is intended to take the place of personalized medical care and treat-
ment provided by your healthcare provider.
This book was current as of June, 2013, and as new information becomes
available through research, experience, or changes to product contents,
some of the data in this book may become invalid. You should seek the most
up-to-date information on your medical care and treatment from your
healthcare professional. The ultimate decision concerning care should be
made by you and your healthcare provider.
Information in this book is general and is offered with no guarantees on the
part of the author, editors, or The Pragmatic Programmers, LLC. The author,
editors, and publisher disclaim all liability in connection with the use of
this book.
Contents
Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . xiii
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv
1. Making Changes . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 Unit-Testing Your Health 2
1.2 The Mind-Body Connection 3
1.3 An Iterative Approach to Health 4
1.4 The Science Behind Habits 7
1.5 Reprogramming Your Habits 10
1.6 Retrospective 12
2. Bootstrapping Your Health . . . . . . . . . 13
2.1 Thinking on Your Feet 14
2.2 Walking Your Way to Better Health 17
2.3 The Time of Your Life 20
2.4 Learning How to Walk 22
2.5 Getting Out the Door 24
2.6 Retrospective 25
3. A Farewell to Chairs? . . . . . . . . . . 29
3.1 Sitting Is Considered Harmful 30
3.2 Standing Up for the Truth 34
3.3 Enhancing Your Workstation 38
3.4 Retrospective 43
4. Agile Dieting . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
4.1 An Iterative Approach to Dieting 48
4.2 Balanced Nutrition Over Idiosyncratic Diets 50
4.3 Eating Your Brains Out 52
•
Contents viii
4.4 Counting Calories Over Following Trends 55
4.5 Adjusting Your Caloric Intake 57
4.6 Individual Tastes Over Predefined Menus 59
4.7 Retrospective 61
5. Preventing Headaches and Eye Strain . . . . . . 65
5.1 Unit-Testing Your Vision 66
5.2 Avoiding Computer Vision Syndrome 69
5.3 Avoiding Headache Triggers 71
5.4 Treating Headache Symptoms 74
5.5 Retrospective 76
6. Preventing Back Pain . . . . . . . . . . 79
6.1 Unit-Testing Your Core Muscles 80
6.2 Understanding the Anatomy of the Back 86
6.3 Strengthening Your Powerhouse 88
6.4 Developing Better Ergonomics 96
6.5 Retrospective 99
7. Preventing Wrist Pain . . . . . . . . . . 103
7.1 Unit-Testing Your Wrists 104
7.2 Understanding the Causes of Wrist Pain 108
7.3 Using Exercise to Prevent Pain 108
7.4 Reducing Tension with the Alexander Technique 113
7.5 Restricting Movement with Braces 116
7.6 Retrospective 118
8. Making Exercise Pragmatic . . . . . . . . . 121
8.1 Exercising Your Brain 122
8.2 Taking Healthy Pomodoro Breaks 122
8.3 Keeping a Log 126
8.4 Playing Games with Your Health 127
8.5 Taking Your Fitness to the Web 131
8.6 Retrospective 132
9. Thinking Outside the Cube . . . . . . . . . 135
9.1 Dosing on Vitamin D 136
9.2 Shedding Light on the Vitamin D Hype 137
9.3 Boosting Your Immune System 139
9.4 Dealing with the Common Cold 141
9.5 Thinking Under the Trees 142
9.6 Retrospective 144
•
Contents ix
10. Refactoring Your Fitness . . . . . . . . . 147
10.1 Warming Up 148
10.2 Understanding the Dimensions of Fitness 150
10.3 Unit-Testing Your Fitness 151
10.4 Upgrading Your Hardware 159
10.5 Retrospective 169
11. Teaming Up . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
11.1 Message-Passing 174
11.2 Investing in Your Health 175
11.3 Playing Well with Others 178
11.4 Building a Better Team 182
11.5 Retrospective 183
12. Onward, Healthy Programmer . . . . . . . . 187
12.1 Continuous Improvement 188
12.2 Creating Social Habits 190
12.3 The Joy of Being Healthy 191
A1. Goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
A2. Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
A2.1 Examples of Fruit/Vegetable Servings 195
A2.2 Example Day 196
A3. Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . 197
A3.1 Books 197
A3.2 Publications 197
A4. Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
Foreword
Ask a nondoctor about the likely afflictions of young patients, and he or she
will most likely mention ankle sprains, tendonitis, and a few types of
unpalatable infections.
However, the truth is rather less exciting, and certainly less related to sports.
Our list instead includes back pain, headaches, irritable bowel syndrome,
upper-limb syndromes, and low mood—a list of maladies that is almost
without exception due to a lifestyle filled with time spent stationary indoors,
excess typing and repetitive wrist movements from mouse to keyboard, and
inappropriate dietary intake.
Interestingly and, may I say, without coincidence, these themes mirror the
contents of this book, with chapters related to topics such as the right chair,
preventing eye strain, agile dieting, and the fascinating topic of vitamin D
deficiency, which is only just being adequately explored in the scientific and
medical literature.
It’s a cliché often used in the medical field, but “prevention is better than
cure” is both relevant and highly correct. As doctors we so often find that by
the time a patient presents with wrist or back pain, it will remain no matter
what we do. Yes, we try everything that we have: analgesics, antispasmodics,
physiotherapy, and even alternative therapies such as acupuncture and chi-
ropracty. However, they tend not to work. There are often two factors at play.
The first is that our patients, due to the pressure of their work, are incapable
of improving the factors that drive their illnesses; the second is that good
advice is hard to find and evaluate. For example, a simple Internet search for
back-pain remedies will yield thousands of non-evidence-based diagnoses,
cures, and quackeries. Is it a surprise that doctors, researchers, and even IT
professionals have difficulty evaluating and recommending specific interven-
tions?
In this book the author manages to take the most recent scientific literature,
dissect it, analyze it, and apply it to a group of professionals whose needs are
report erratum • discuss